As the IPL 2026 mini-auction approaches, Kolkata Knight Riders CEO Venky Mysore has finally opened up about the reasoning behind not retaining star all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer. The 26-year-old, who was acquired for a record INR 23.75 crore in the 2025 mega-auction, finds himself back in the auction pool after an underwhelming season with the franchise.
Despite his struggles last season, the 26-year-old remains one of the most sought-after Indian all-rounders. With a base price of INR 2 crore, he is among only two Indian players in that bracket, making him a hot property for franchises seeking a top-order batter who can contribute with the ball. The mini-auction, set for December 16 in Abu Dhabi, features 1,355 registered players, including 45 in the INR 2 crore category. With just 77 slots available across all teams, competition for players like Iyer is expected to be intense.
Iyer had a difficult IPL 2025 campaign, scoring only 142 runs in 11 matches and failing to make a significant impact with his bowling. This dip in form ultimately led to KKR’s decision to release him. The franchise had taken a huge gamble in 2025 by securing Iyer at a record price, banking on his prior performances and the team’s need for a strong Indian all-rounder.
CEO Breaks Silence
Addressing the move, KKR CEO Venky Mysore told ESPNCricinfo, “As I said at the start of our conversation, auctions create this, call it confusion or whatever, at times. I mean if he had scored 500 runs, he would’ve said, ‘hey, price tag doesn’t matter at all.’ Maybe it did (grins), and it weighed (on Venkatesh). He probably had his worst year by his standards with us since 2021. The thought process that goes through the franchise think-tank at the table is, what would you rather do? And I have as much money as possible and flexibility to engineer that whichever way you want, or just go in there and be at the mercy of whatever. And so last year, in many ways, it was a bit of a learning thing for us; it was purely very, very circumstantial. I mean this is probably the first time we have done something like that: picked a big player at price, that was quite exciting. Now, because of the mini-auction dynamics rather than anything else, we decided to release him.”
On the subject of auctions, Mysore added, “We have made our position very, very clear when last year we franchises had a big discussion with IPL around retention and various other significant topics. We said you cannot be punishing franchises who have worked very, very hard to build teams to identify talent, develop them and have had success. And suddenly you are saying that’s it, let’s do a mega auction every three years… Imagine you go win a championship and then you get dismantled after that. Or what happens is that the punishment for having good players to retain is so high that you see teams coming in with huge purses to the auction… I’m not in the camp which says auctions are exciting.”
As the IPL 2026 mini-auction approaches, all eyes will be on Iyer, with fans and franchises alike curious whether KKR will attempt to bring him back or if another team will swoop in to secure the talented all-rounder.
